‘Seventh Son’ Begins Filming; Official Synopsis Released

Warner Bros. is looking to transform another fantasy-adventure literary series into a lucrative film franchise with The Seventh Son, an adaptation of the first installment in author Joseph Delaney’s The Wardstone Chronicles (originally titled “The Spook’s Apprentice”).

The studio promoted the Legendary Pictures-backed project at Comic-Con 2011 – and recently sent out a press release announcing the start of principal photography, which actually began a few days back (at the time of writing this) on March 19th in Vancouver.

Seventh Son features a cast that includes fan-favorite Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges (Iron Man, TRON: Legacy, True Grit), multiple Oscar-nominee Julianne Moore (Children of Men, The Kids Are All Right), and Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia series), alongside supporting talent in the forms of Olivia Williams (Hanna), Antje Traue (the Superman reboot, Man of Steel) and Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington.

Here is an official synopsis for The Seventh Son (followed by a conceptual art gallery for the film, via CB):

In a time long past, an evil is about to be unleashed that will reignite the war between the forces of the supernatural and humankind once more. Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is a knight who had imprisoned the malevolently powerful witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), centuries ago. But now she has escaped and is seeking vengeance. Summoning her followers of every incarnation, Mother Malkin is preparing to unleash her terrible wrath on an unsuspecting world. Only one thing stands in her way: Master Gregory.

In a deadly reunion, Gregory comes face to face with the evil he always feared would someday return. Now he has only until the next full moon to do what usually takes years: train his new apprentice, Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) to fight a dark magic unlike any other. Man’s only hope lies in the seventh son of a seventh son.

If the admirable cast and imaginative artwork from The Seventh Son weren’t enough to pique your interest – the production is being overseen by Russian filmmaker Sergey/Sergei Bodrov, who was responsible for helming such Oscar-nominated Foreign Language titles as Prisoners of the Mountain and Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan. Trust us when we say, this guy knows how to create visually and thematically engaging historical action epics (often with overt mythological overtones).

That Bodrov will have assistance from cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel (Drive) and Oscar-winning production designer Dante Ferretti (Hugo) in realizing said fantastical visuals for The Seventh Son, shouldn’t hurt either. So long as the screenplay penned by the likes of Max Borenstein (the Godzilla reboot), Matt Greenberg (1408) and Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) is up to scratch, this could be a memorable addition to the increasingly long list of fantasy novels-turned-movies.

The Seventh Son is slated to hit theaters around the U.S. on February 15th, 2013.